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When to gather around to
Enjoy your vin de garde |
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 Sunday marked a telling day. According to German folk knowledge, Siebenschläfertag (June 27th) portends the weather -if it rains you can expect more of the same over the seven weeks that follow. We suffered neither rain nor hail. Instead of the ominous clouds and flash floods of the Friday before, the skies brought sunshine and a cooling breeze to temper the heat. Wouldn't seven weeks of this be nice? Might there be something to this German folk saying? Despite the healthy skepticism of our empirical age, people around the world still trust Farmer's Almanacs to provide accurate advice -often times advice that flies in the face of logic or science as we know it. Surely there is more to this world than that we can measure -no matter how thorough our methods or sophisticated our tools. Will the next seven weeks carry on the balmy weather of yesterday? The forecast so far suggests we have great weather to look forward to. Even as a man of science, I have to wonder if there's something to the agrarian folk knowledge of this bygone time when farmers knew the skies as well as they knew the lay of their plots. |
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Siebenschläfertag aside, last Sunday was important for wine drinkers whether or not you knew it. When you cracked into that bottle and were awestruck by how delicious each and every sip of wine tasted, did you ask yourself what might be at work -why some wines you are completely familiar with were showing their best? Maria Thun would not be surprised in the least. As the doyenne of Biodynamic agriculture, she has known this day was coming for many a moon. Biodynamic agriculture is a systematic and holistic approach to farming that has earned many devotees for the healthy intensity of the resulting crops and wines in particular. Tending to the fields according to cycles of the cosmos might seem far fetched at first blush but no one doubts the moon's tug at the tides or its impulsive persuasion over people -just ask the staff at any hospital after a full moon. Could the orbiting planets in addition weigh their own influence on the way matter responds here on earth? A growing number of vintners following Biodynamic agriculture suggest so. Each year countless farmers, gardeners and grape growers alike anticipate the arrival of their Biodynamic Calendar.
With decades of empirical trials to support her findings, Maria Thun publishes this annual calendar to guide when to plant, prune, treat and harvest various crops according to four calendar days: fruit, flower, leaf and root. For example, we are to work potatoes on root days, reap chicory on leaf days, sow herbs and blossoms on flower days, and see to our orchards and vineyards on fruit days. What's more is that wine, being a fruit product, tastes its very best on fruit days. |
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 Skeptical of this concept, we ran our own trials over the course of last year to put theses theories to test. In one instance our group of wine professionals met on two occasions to try an identical lineup of wines tasted blind. One day was a fruit day and the other a root day. Each taster quietly took note of each wine commenting on the respective wine's merits and shortcomings. The very same group met on successive Wednesdays at the same time of day in an effort to control as many variables as possible. After day two we collected the notes to once and for all expose Biodynamic calendar days at a bunch of cat waving nonsense. Instead we were dumbstruck as we marveled at the unanimous results that showed how even skeptic unbelievers found the wines "disjointed," "out of sorts," "sharp," "alcoholic," and even "muted" on the root day. Some in the group were even confusing the component grape variety between days. Seasoned professionals with over thirty years of experience seldom mistake the varieties they're drinking. By contrast the fruit days inspired notes of "harmonious structure," "complex fragrance,"  "layered flavors," "serious texture," and "great length and complexity." What were we to make of all this? Keeping our findings to ourselves, we asked people over the next year to let us know when they really enjoyed the wines they were tasting and to also share with us when wines seemed at odds with themselves. Our findings reveled that wines tasted their best on fruit days or flower days and less favorable on leaf and root days. Over time we came to accept that there must be more to these calendar days than meets the eye. How could we deny its influence when wines have greater focus and display the clarity of their very essence more so on fruit days as if the volume knobs are turned higher and every detail seems delineated it a wine maker intends? |
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 We now host all tasting events on fruit days to be sure each wine shines to the best of its ability. Since we chose to schedule events on fruit days we have noticed a heightened enthusiasm and that people stock more wine. So what do you imagine was done when we read Sunday June 27th was a particularly good fruit day? We gathered around to pop the corks of many a fine wine ranging from vintage Grand Cru Chablis, Meursault, and the Savennierres of Nicolas Joly to well ripened Volnay and Pommard, Northern Rhones from the 80s and 90s, household names of Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignons from the 70s and 80s, a 1979 Chateau Latour, a 1990 Baumard Coteaux du Layon and a 1981 Barbeito Verdehlo Madeira. A surfeit of riches never seemed so appropriate or lovingly received. Wines that Sunday were beguiling every one of us as we gushed about each in turn and although the Kobe beef at dinner was the most delightful I've ever set to my lips, its voice was lost in a chorus of wines that affirmed the 27th was a day among days for enjoying wines that patiently ripened in our cellars in search of the right occasion. Pin down a promising fruit day and circle your friends, your family and neighbors to simply enjoy wine at its best -there is no better occasion than a fruit day to enjoy that special bottle waiting for such an opportunity. |
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Artisan Vineyards, Saint Paul, MN 55103
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